Video: Stacking order and eyedropping a layer

In this exercise, we're going to add a few more layers to our composition. I'm going to show you how to change the stacking order, not only by dragging layers inside the Layers panel, but you can do it from the keyboard as well. I've saved my progress as The three glasses.psd found inside the 10_layers folder. I'm going to bring back up my Layers panel by pressing the F7 key. Now I can tell that this first glass is the biggest one, because I remember, it was called glass 142, blah, blah, blah. So I'm going to rename it glass 1 like so, but I'm not sure what's going on with glass 2 and glass 2 copy here, because the thumbnails are all the same size and there is no context.

Photoshop is the world’s most powerful image editor, and it’s arguably the most complex, as well. Fortunately, nobody knows the program like award-winning book and video author Deke McClelland. Join Deke as he explores such indispensable Photoshop features as resolution, cropping, color correction, retouching, and layers. Gain expertise with real-world projects that make sense. Exercise files accompany the course.

Stacking order and eyedropping a layer

In this exercise, we're going to add a few more layers to our composition.I'm going to show you how to change the stacking order, not only by dragginglayers inside the Layers panel, but you can do it from the keyboard as well.I've saved my progress as The three glasses.psd found inside the 10_layers folder.I'm going to bring back up my Layers panel by pressing the F7 key.Now I can tell that this first glass is the biggest one, because I remember, itwas called glass 142, blah, blah, blah.So I'm going to rename it glass 1 like so, but I'm not sure what's going on withglass 2 and glass 2 copy here, because the thumbnails are all the same size andthere is no context.

There is no indication of where the glasses are inside the composition, andthat's because I change that one setting. You may recall.So I'm going to change it back, by going up to the fly out menu andchoosing panel Options.Then I'm going to select Entire Document from Thumbnail Contents and click OK.Now I can see sure enough, there is glass 1;glass 2 copy is actually glass 3, because it's the little one over on the right;and glass 2 is the one in the middle.I can go ahead and move glass 3 now below glass 2, so that they're in the proper order.

It's one way to work.Another thing I can do is I can press the Control key or the Command key on theMac along with one of the bracket keys.If I press Control+Right Bracket or Command+Right Bracket on the Mac, then Imove this layer up the stack like so until I get all the way to the top.Then if I press Control+Left Bracket or Command+Left Bracket on the Mac, thenI go down the stack.Notice, you can also press Control+ Shift+Right Bracket or Command+Shift+RightBracket on the Mac, to send it all the way to the top or you can pressControl+Shift+Left Bracket or Command+ Shift+Left Bracket to send it all the wayto the bottom, that is right on top of the Background, because nothing can bebelow the Background.

The Background always has to be at the bottom of the stack;so few keyboard shortcuts for those of you who may be interested.Now I'm going to turn on this colors layer.I created this layer very simply using the Polygonal Lasso Tool.I outlined certain areas inside the image.Then I changed foreground color to blue in this case, and pressedAlt+Backspace or Option+Delete in order to fill that area with blue, and thengreen, and then yellow.So the purpose of this layer is to colorize the martini glasses.So I'm going to bring back the Layers panel, click on colors.

I'm going to change the Blend Mode to Color, and that goes ahead and fuses eachone of these glasses with these radiant colors right here.Now I didn't quite get everything aligned exactly right.There maybe a function of putting the martini glasses in different places.Let's go and inspect our work by moving the Layers panel out of the way, andpressing the Escape key, so that color is no longer active.Notice that these bubbles right here, and these half bubbles ought to be yellowand these guys ought to be green.

So we're going to fix that, because I want to pass along another trick here thatyou should be aware of.I'm going to select the Lasso Tool.I'm going to go ahead and Alt+Click around this areas to employ my PolygonalLasso Function there, until I get more or less this area selected, just to makesure I've selected too much, don't you know, and I need to eye-drop that green.So I'll go over to the Eyedropper Tool or I can press the I key, but if Iclick inside some region of the glass, you'll see then I get the compositeversion of that color.So like a dark green, if I click in a dark area, how do I get the exact greenthat I used on that layer with the Eyedropper?Well, what you do is you go up to the Options bar.

You notice Sample is set to All Layers right now.Change it to Current Layer and press the Escape key, so it's no longer sticky onthe PC, anyway, you don't have to do that on the Mac.Now click-and-hold, and you can see that I've got a very light shade of green,even when I'm dragging around the glass like so.That's the one I want.Now I'll press Alt+Backspace or Option +Delete to fill that area with green.Now let's repeat the process for yellow, go ahead and click off the selection to deselect it.Then press the Alt key or the Option key on the Mac, and click around thisregion here in order to select those bubbles.

Then I'll get my Eyedropper Tool by pressing the I key.It's already set to Current Layer as you'll see.Go ahead and click inside of the glass and you'll get that yellow, release,and press Alt+Backspace or Option+Delete to fill that region with the proper shade of yellow.Now what I recommend is after you're through lifting all the colors you want tofrom the Current Layer, then you go up to Sample and you change it back fromCurrent Layer to All Layers, because they can actually throw off the behavior ofthe Eyedropper Tool in ways that you might not expect.Then, when it starts misbehaving, you'll forget that you would change it toCurrent Layer and it just won't behave itself at all.

Anyway, that's my experience.I'm going to go ahead and escape out of that option.Press the M key to switch back to the Marquee Tool.One more thing that I want to do here, I'll click off in order to deselect the image.One more layer that I want to add, and that's a layer of inversion.Let's go back up here.If you check out the final Martini Hour banner, you'll see that the glassesare actually light against the dark background, and that's because I inverted everything.I did that using an Invert Adjustment Layer.I'm going to show you how that Adjustment Layer works as well as this reallygreat new Opacity trick inside CS5 in the next exercise.

Q: While following along to the tutorial, my copy of Bridge does not have the same Export options as shown in the video. Why are these options missing in my copy?

A: For some reason, Bridge CS5 shipped without the Export options. They were included when Bridge updated to version 4.0.1. Updating Bridge will restore the export options.

Q: While following along with the exercises, next to the background layer on my Layers panel \, it shows a brush instead of the small picture, as it does in the video. What can I do to fix this? I erased the exercise files and started over, but it still shows the paintbrush.

A: This will occur if the Layers panel preview is turned off. To fix this, right-click in the empty gray area below the Background layer. Then choose Large Thumbnails. The thumbnail previews should come back immediately.

Q: The instructions for installing the dekeKeys don't work on my computer (which is running Mac OS X Lion). Is there an update to these?

A: The dekeKeys distributed with this course will still work for Lion. You just need to add them to a slightly different folder than in previous versions of OS X.

Open a new Finder window and choose Go > Go to Folder. Type the following file path exactly as written below. Copying and pasting may result in an error.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

Already a member ?

Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
Learn more

Upgrade to our Annual Premium Membership today and get even more value from your lynda.com subscription:

“In a way, I feel like you are rooting for me. Like you are really invested in my experience, and want me to get as much out of these courses as possible this is the best place to start on your journey to learning new material.”— Nadine H.

Thanks for signing up.

We’ll send you a confirmation email shortly.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.

Keep up with news, tips, and latest courses with emails from lynda.com.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.